How Merkel Can Calm the Conflict Between Greece and Turkey
Once, what the U.S. thought might have mattered. Times have changed.
Erdogan pays attention to Germany’s chancellor.
Photographer: Adam Berry/Getty Images
When Turkey and Greece last came to the brink of war, phone calls from President Bill Clinton to the leaders of both countries persuaded them to pull back. Now, as the two NATO allies again face off in the eastern Mediterranean, President Donald Trump’s desultory efforts to defuse the tensions are having no effect.
After the intervention of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, both sides stood down — though only briefly. Hostilities have since resumed in earnest. Ankara and Athens are dialing up their belligerent rhetoric, and two of their warships recently collided during a confrontation. The stakes are higher than in 1996. Then, the clash was primarily over a cluster of islets in the Aegean Sea. Now, territorial claims are being invoked to support assertions of exclusive drilling rights over large deposits of natural gas under the eastern Mediterranean.